W — “ — 

THE  NORMAL 
SCHOOL  BULLETIN 


OCTOBER.  I.  1909 


EDUCATION  AND  UTILITY 

■ — V-T-— Br IT-1"  T— -T 

W.  C.  BEGLEY 

.fe  !& 


^3  LH 


'310.1 


NOKMAL  SCHOOL  BULLETIN 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  EASTERN  ILLINOIS  ST  A TE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


Entered  March  5,  as  second-class  matter  at  the  postoffice  at  Charleston,  Illinois,  Act 
of  Congress,  July  16,  1894. 


CHARLESTON,  ILLINOIS,  October  I,  1909. 


No.  26 


EDUCATION  AND  UTILITY * 

By  W.  C.  Bagley,  Ph.  D. 

Director  of  the  School  of  Education 
University  of  Illinois 

I wish  to  discuss  with  you  this  morning  some  phases  of 
the  problem  that  is  perhaps  foremost  in  the  minds  of  the 
teaching  public  today:  the  problem,  namely,  of  making  edu- 
cation bear  more  directly  and  more  effectively  upon  the  work 
of  practical,  every-day  life.  I have  no  doubt  that  some  of 
you  feel,  when  this  problem  is  suggested,  very  much  as  I felt 
when  I first  suggested  to  myself  the  possibility  of  discussing 
it  with  you.  You  may  doubtless  have  heard  some  phases  of 
this  problem  discussed  at  every  meeting  of  this  association 
for  the  past  ten  years — if  you  have  been  a member  so  long 
as  that.  Certain  it  is  that  we  all  grow  weary  of  the  reiter- 
ation of  even  the  best  of  truths,  but  certain  it  is  also  that 
some  problems  are  always  before  us,  and  until  they  are  solved 
satisfactorily  they  will  always  stimulate  men  to  devise  means 
for  their  solution. 


*Paper  read  before  the  Eastern  Illinois  Teachers  Association,  October  15,  1909. 


2 


EA  S TERN  ILLINO IS  S TA  TE 


I should  say  at  the  outset,  however,  that  I shall  not  at- 
tempt to  justify  to  this  audience  the  introduction  of  vocational 
subjects  into  the  elementary  and  secondary  curriculum.  I 
shall  take  it  for  granted  that  you  have  already  made  up  your 
minds  upon  this  matter.  I shall  not  take  your  time  in 
an  attempt  to  persuade  you  that  agriculture  ought  to  be 
taught  in  the  rural  schools,  or  manual  training  and  domestic 
science  in  all  schools.  I am  personally  convinced  of  the 
value  of  such  work  and  I shall  take  it  for  granted  that  you 
are  likewise  convinced. 

My  task  today,  then,  is  of  another  type.  I wish  to  dis- 
cuss with  you  some  of  the  implications  of  this  matter  of  utility 
in  respect  to  the  work  that  every  elementary  school  is  doing 
and  always  must  do,  no  matter  how  much  hand- work  or  vo- 
cational material  it  may  introduce.  My  problem  in  other 
words,  concerns  the  ordinary  subject-matter  of  the  curricu- 
lum,— reading  and  writing  and  arithmetic,  geography,  and 
grammar,  and  history, — those  things  which,  like  the  poor,  are 
always  with  us,  but  which  we  seem  a little  ashamed  to  talk 
about  in  public.  Truly,  from  reading  the  educational  journals 
and  hearing  educational  discussion  today,  the  layman  might 
well  infer  that  what  we  term  the  “useful”  education  and  the 
education  that  is  now  offered  by  the  average  school  are  as  far 
apart  as  the  two  poles.  We  are  all  familiar  with  the  state- 
ment that  the  elementary  curriculum  is  eminently  adapted 
to  produce  clerks  and  accountants,  but  very  poorly  adapted 
to  furnish  recruits  for  any  other  department  of  life.  The 
high  school  is  criticized  on  the  ground  that  it  prepares  for 
college  and  consequently  for  the  professions,  but  that  it  is 
totally  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  the  average  citizen.  Now 
it  would  be  futile  to  deny  that  there  is  some  truth  in  both 
these  assertions,  but  I do  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  both  are 
grossly  exaggerated,  and  that  the  curriculum  of  today,  with 
all  its  imperfections,  does  not  justify  so  sweeping  a denun- 
ciation. I wish  to  point  out  some  of  the  respects  in  which 
these  charges  are  fallacious,  and,  in  so  doing,  perhaps,  to 
suggest  some  possible  remedies  for  the  defects  that  every- 
one will  acknowledge. 


NORMAL  SCHOOL  BULLETIN 


3 


In  the  first  place,  let  me  make  myself  perfectly  clear 
upon  what  I mean  by  the  word  “useful”.  What,  after  all, 
is  the  “useful”  study  in  our  schools?  What  do  men  find  to 
be  the  useful  thing  in  their  lives?  The  most  natural  answer 
to  this  question  is  that  the  useful  things  are  those  that  en- 
able us  to  meet  effectively  the  conditions  of  life, — or,  to  use 
a phrase  that  is  perfectly  clear  to  us  all,  the  things  that  help 
us  in  getting  a living.  The  vast  majority  of  men  and  women 
in  this  world  measure  all  value  by  this  standard  for  most  of 
us  are,  to  use  the  expressive  slang  of  the  day,  “up  against” 
this  problem,  and  “up  against”  it  so  hard  and  so  constantly 
that  we  interpret  everything  in  the  greatly  foreshortened 
perspective  of  immediate  necessity.  Most  of  us  in  this  room 
are  confronting  this  problem  of  making  a living.  At  any 
rate,  I am  confronting  it,  and  consequently  I may  lay  claim 
to  some  of  the  authority  that  comes  from  experience. 

And  since  I have  made  this  personal  reference,  may  I 
violate  the  canons  of  good  taste  and  make  still  another?  I 
was  face  to  face  with  this  problem  of  getting  a living  a good 
many  years  ago,  when  the  opportunity  came  to  me  to  take  a 
college  course.  I could  see  nothing  ahead  after  that  except 
another  tussle  with  this  same  vital  issue.  So  I decided  to 
take  a college  course  which  would,  in  all  probability,  help 
me  to  solve  the  problem.  Scientific  agriculture  was  not  de- 
veloped in  those  days  as  it  has  been  since  that  time,  but  a 
start  had  been  made,  and  the  various  agricultural  colleges 
were  offering  what  seemed  to  be  very  practical  courses.  I 
had  had  some  early  experience  on  the  farm,  and  I decided  to 
become  a scientific  farmer.  I took  the  course  of  four  years 
and  secured  my  degree.  The  course  was  as  useful  from 
the  standpoint  of  practical  agriculture  as  any  that  could 
have  been  devised  at  the  time.  But  when  I graduated,  what 
did  I find?  The  same  old  problem  of  getting  a living  still 
confronted  me  as  I had  expected  that  it  would;  and  alas!  I 
had  got  my  education  in  a profession  that  demanded  capital. 
I was  a landless  farmer.  Times  were  hard  and  work  of  all 
kinds  was  very  scarce.  The  farmers  of  those  days  were  in- 


4 


EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE 


dined  to  scoff  at  scientific  agriculture.  I could  have  worked 
for  my  board  and  a little  more,  and  I should  have  done  so  had 
I been  able  to  find  a job.  But  while  I was  looking  for  the 
place,  a chance  came  to  teach  school,  and  I took  the  oppor- 
tunity as  a means  of  keeping  the  wolf  from  the  door.  I have 
been  engaged  in  the  work  of  teaching  ever  since.  When  I 
was  able  to  buy  land,  I did  so,  and  I have  today  a farm  of 
which  I am  very  proud.  It  does  not  pay  large  dividends,  but  I 
keep  it  up  for  the  fun  I get  out  of  it, — and  I like  to  think, 
also,  that  if  I should  lose  my  job  as  a teacher,  I could  go 
back  to  the  farm  and  show  the  natives  how  to  make  money. 
This  is  doubtless  an  illusion,  but  it  is  a source  of  solid  com- 
fort just  the  same. 

Now  the  point  of  this  experience  is  simply  this:  I se- 
cured an  education  that  seemed  to  me  to  promise  the  acme 
of  utility.  In  one  way,  it  has  fulfilled  that  promise  far  be- 
yond my  wildest  expectations,  but  that  way  was  very  diff- 
erent from  the  one  that  I had  anticipated.  The  technical 
knowledge  that  I gained  during  those  four  strenuous  years,  I 
apply  now  only  as  a means  of  recreation.  So  far  as  ena- 
bling me  directly  to  get  a living,  this  technical  knowledge 
does  not  pay  one  per  cent  on  the  investment  of  time  and 
money.  And  yet,  I count  the  training  that  I got  from  its 
mastery  as,  perhaps,  the  most  useful  product  of  my  educa- 
tion. 

Now  what  was  the  secret  of  its  utility?  As  I analyze 
my  experience,  I find  it  summed  up  very  largely  in  two  fac- 
tors. In  the  first  place,  I studied  a set  of  subjects  for  which 
I had  at  the  outset  very  little  taste.  In  studying  agricul- 
ture, I had  to  master  a certain  amount  of  chemistry,  physics, 
botany,  and  zoology  for  each  and  every  one  of  which  I felt, 
at  the  outset,  a distinct  aversion  and  dislike.  A mastery  of 
these  subjects  was  essential  to  a realization  of  the  purpose 
that  I had  in  mind.  I was  sure  that  I should  never  like  them, 
and  yet,  as  I kept  at  work,  I gradually  found  myself  losing 
that  initial  distaste.  First  one  and  then  another  opened  out 
its  vista  of  truth  and  revelation  before  me,  and  almost  before 


FORMAL  SCHOOL  BULLETIN 


5 


I was  aware  of  it,  I was  an  enthusiast  over  science.  It  was 
a long  time  before  I generalized  that  experience  and  drew 
its  lesson,  but  the  lesson,  once  learned,  has  helped  me  more 
even  in  the  specific  task  of  getting  a living  than  anything 
else  that  came  out  of  my  school  training.  That  experience 
taught  me,  not  only  the  necessity  for  doing  disagreeable 
tasks, — for  attacking  them  hopefully  and  cheerfully, — but 
it  also  taught  me  that  disagreeable  tasks,  if  attacked  in  the 
right  way,  and  persisted  in  with  patience,  often  become  at- 
tractive in  themselves.  Over  and  over  again  in  meeting  the 
situations  of  real  life,  I have  been  confronted  with  tasks  that 
were  initially  distasteful.  Sometimes  I have  surrendered  be- 
fore them;  but  sometimes,  too,  that  lesson  has  come  back  to 
me,  and  has  inspired  me  to  struggle  on,  and  at  no  time  has 
it  disappointed  me  by  the  outcome.  I repeat  that  there  is 
no  technical  knowledge  that  I have  gained  that  compares 
for  a moment  with  that  ideal  of  patience  and  persistence. 
When  it  comes  to  real,  downright  utility,  measured  by  this 
inexorable  standard  of  getting  a living,  commend  me  to  the 
ideal  of  persistent  effort.  All  the  knowledge  that  we  can 
learn  or  teach  will  come  to  very  little  if  this  element  is 
lacking. 

Now  this  is  very  far  from  saying  that  the  pursuit  of 
really  useful  knowledge  may  not  give  this  ideal  just  as 
effectively  as  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  that  will  never  be 
used.  My  point  is  simply  this:  that  beyond  the  immediate 
utility  of  the  facts  that  we  teach, — basic  and  fundamental  to 
this  utility,  in  fact, — is  the  utility  of  the  ideals  and  stand- 
ards that  are  derived  from  our  school  work.  Whatever  we 
teach,  these  essential  factors  can  be  made  to  standout  in  our 
work,  and  if  our  pupils  acquire  these  we  shall  have  done  the 
basic  and  important  thing  in  helping  them  to  solve  the  prob- 
lems of  real  life, — and  if  our  pupils  do  not  acquire  these,  it  will 
make  little  difference  how  valuable  may  be  the  content  of  our 
instruction.  I feel  like  emphasizing  this  matter  today,  be- 
cause there  is  in  the  air  a notion  that  utility  depends  en- 
tirely upon  the  content  of  the  curriculum.  Certainly  the 


6 


EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE 


curriculum  must  be  improved  from  this  standpoint,  but  we 
are  just  now  losing  sight  of  the  other  equally  important  fac- 
tor,— that,  after  all,  while  both  are  essential,  it  is  the  spirit 
of  tf  aching  rather  than  the  content  of  teaching  that  is  basic 
and  fundamental. 

Nor  have  I much  sympathy  with  that  extreme  view  of 
this  matter  which  asserts  that  we  must  go  out  of  our  way  to 
provide  distasteful  tasks  for  the  pupil  in  order  to  develop 
this  ideal  of  persistence.  I believe  that  such  a policy  will 
always  tend  to  defeat  its  own  purpose.  I know  a teacher 
who  holds  this  belief.  He  goes  out  of  his  way  to  make  tasks 
difficult.  He  refuses  to  help  pupils  over  hard  places.  He 
does  not  believe  in  careful  assignments  of  lessons,  because, 
he  holds,  the  pupil  ought  to  learn  to  overcome  difficulties 
for  himself  and  how  can  he  learn  unless  real  difficulties  are 
presented? 

The  great  trouble  with  this  teacher  is  that  his  policy 
does  not  work  out  in  practice.  A small  minority  of  his 
pupils  are  strengthened  by  it;  the  majority  are  weakened. 
He  is  right  when  he  says  that  a pupil  gains  strength  only  by 
overcoming  difficulties,  but  he  neglects  a very  important 
qualification  of  this  rule,  namely,  that  a pupil  gains  no 
strength  out  of  obstacles  that  he  fails  to  overcome.  It  is  the 
conquest  that  comes  after  effort, — this  is  the  factor  that  gives 
one  strength  and  confidence.  But  when  defeat  follows  de- 
feat and  failure  follows  failure,  it  is  weakness  that  is  being 
engendered — not  strength.  And  that  is  the  trouble  with 
this  teacher’s  pupils.  The  majority  leave  him  with  all  confi- 
dence in  their  own  ability  shaken  out  of  them  and  some  of 
them  never  recover  from  the  experience. 

And  so  while  I insist  strenuously  that  the  most  use- 
ful lesson  we  can  teach  our  pupils  is  how  to  do  disagreeable 
tasks  cheerfully  and  willingly,  please  do  not  understand  me 
to  mean  that  we  should  go  out  of  our  way  to  provide  dis- 
agreeable tasks.  After  all,  I rejoice  that  my  own  children 
are  learning  how  to  read  and  write  and  cipher  much  more 
easily,  much  more  quickly,  and  withal  much  more 


NORMAL  SCHOOL  BULLETIN 


7 


pleasantly  than  I learned  those  useful  arts.  The  more  quickly 
they  get  to  the  plane  that  their  elders  have  reached,  the  more 
quickly  they  can  get  beyond  this  plane  and  on  to  the  next  level. 
To  argue  against  improved  methods  in  teaching  on  the 
ground  that  they  make  things  too  easy  for  the  pupil  is,  to  my 
mind,  a grievous  error.  It  is  as  fallacious  as  to  argue  that 
the  introduction  of  machinery  is  a curse  because  it  has 
diminished  in  some  measure  the  necessity  for  human  drudg- 
ery. But  if  machinery  left  mankind  to  rest  upon  its  oars,  if 
it  discouraged  further  progress  and  further  effortful  achieve- 
ment, it  would  be  a curse:  and  if  the  easier  and  quicker 
methods  of  instruction  simply  bring  my  children  to  my  own 
level  and  then  fail  to  stimulate  them  to  get  beyond  my  level, 
then  they  are  a curse  and  not  a blessing.  I do  not  decry 
that  educational  policy  of  today  which  insists  that  school 
work  should  be  made  as  simple  and  attractive  as  possible.  I 
do  decry  that  misinterpretation  of  this  policy  which  looks  at 
the  matter  from  the  other  side,  and  asserts  so  vehemently 
that  the  child  should  never  be  asked  or  urged  to  do  some- 
thing that  isn’t  easy  and  attractive.  Do  I make  myself  clear 
upon  this  point?  It  is  only  because  there  is  so  much  in  the 
world  to  be  done  that,  for  the  sake  of  economizing  time  and 
strength,  we  should  raise  the  child  as  quickly  and  as  rapidly 
and  as  pleasantly  as  possible  to  the  plane  that  the  race  has 
reached.  But  among  all  the  lessons  of  race- experience  that 
we  must  teach  him,  there  is  none  so  fundamental  and  impor- 
tant as  the  lesson  of  achievement  itself, — the  supreme  lesson 
wrung  from  human  experience, — the  lesson,  namely,  that 
every  advance  that  the  world  has  made,  every  step  that  it 
has  taken  forward,  every  increment  that  has  been  added  to 
the  sum- total  of  progress  has  been  attained  at  the  price  of 
self-sacrifice  and  effort  and  struggle, — at  the  price  of  doing 
things  that  one  does  not  want  to  do.  And  unless  a man  is 
willing  to  pay  that  price,  he  is  bound  to  be  the  worst  kind 
of  a social  parasite,  for  he  is  simply  living  on  the  experience  of 
others,  and  adding  to  this  Capital  nothing  of  his  own. 


8 


EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE 


It  is  sometimes  said  that  universal  education  is  essential 
in  order  that  the  great  mass  of  humanity  may  live  in  greater 
comfort  and  enjoy  the  luxuries  that  in  the  past  have  been 
vouchsafed  only  to  the  few.  Personally  I think  that  this  is 
all  right  so  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  fails  to  reach  an  ultimate 
goal.  Material  comfort  is  justified  only  because  it  enables 
mankind  to  live  more  effectively  on  the  lower  planes  of  life 
and  give  greater  strength  and  greater  energy  to  the  solution 
of  new  problems  upon  the  higher  planes  of  life.  The  end  of 
life  can  never  be  adequately  formulated  in  terms  of  comfort 
and  ease,  nor  even  in  terms  of  culture  and  intellectual  enjoy- 
ment; the  end  of  life  is  achievement,  and  no  matter  how  far 
we  go,  achievement  is  possible  only  to  those  who  are  willing 
to  pay  the  price.  When  the  race  stops  investing  its  capital 
of  experience  in  further  achievement,  when  it  settles  down 
to  take  life  easy,  it  will  not  take  it  very  long  to  eat  up  its 
capital  and  revert  to  the  plane  of  the  brute. 

But  I am  getting  away  from  my  text.  You  will  remem- 
ber that  I said  that  the  most  useful  thing  that  we  can  teach 
the  child  is  to  attack  strenuously  and  resolutely,  any  problem 
that  confronts  him  whether  it  pleases  him  or  not,  and  I 
wanted  to  be  certain  that  you  did  not  misinterpret  me  to 
mean  that  we  should,  for  this  reason,  make  our  school  tasks 
unnecessarily  difficult  and  laborious.  After  all,  while  our 
attitude  should  always  be  one  of  interesting  our  pupils, 
their  attitude  should  always  be  one  of  effortful  attention, — 
of  willingness  to  do  the  task  that  we  think  is  best  for  them 
to  do.  You  see  it  is  a sort  of  a double-headed  policy,  and 
how  to  carry  it  out  is  a perplexing  problem.  Of  so  much  I 
am  certain,  however,  at  the  outset:  if  the  pupil  takes  the  at- 
titude that  we  are  there  to  interest  and  entertain  him,  we 
shall  make  a sorry  fiasco  of  the  whole  matter,  and  inasmuch 
as  this  very  tendency  is  in  the  air  at  the  present  time,  I feel 
justified  in  at  least  referring  to  its  danger. 

Now  if  this  ideal  of  persistent  effort  is  the  most  useful 
thing  that  can  come  oub  of  education,  what  is  the  next  most 
useful?  Again,  as  I analyze  what  I obtained  from  my  own 
education,  it  seems  to  me  that,  next  to  learning  that  dis- 


NORMAL  SGHOOL  BULLETIN 


9 


agreeable  tasks  are  often  well  worth  doing,  the  factor  that 
has  helped  me  most  in  getting  a living  has  been  the  method 
of  solving  the  situations  that  confronted  me.  After  all,  if 
we  simply  have  the  ideal  of  resolute  and  agressive  and  per- 
sistent attack,  we  may  struggle  indefinitely  without  much 
result.  All  problems  of  life  involve  certain  common  factors. 
The  essential  difference  between  the  educated  and  the  un- 
educated man,  if  we  grant  each  an  equal  measure  of  pluck, 
persistence,  and  endurance,  lies  in  the  superior  ability  of  the 
educated  man  to  analyze  his  problem  effectively  and  to  pro- 
ceed intelligently  rather  than  blindly  to  its  solution.  I main- 
tain that  education  should  give  a man  this  ideal  of  attack- 
ing any  problem;  furthermore  I maintain  that  the  education 
of  the  present  day,  in  spite  of  the  anathemas  that  are  hurled 
against  it,  is  doing  this  in  greater  measure  than  it  has  ever 
been  done  before.  But  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
not  do  it  in  still  greater  measure. 

I once  knew  two  men  who  were  in  the  busines  of  raising 
fruit  for  commercial  purposes.  Each  had  a large  orchard 
which  he  operated  according  to  conventional  methods  and 
which  netted  him  a comfortable  inc.ome.  One  of  these  men 
was  a man  of  narrow  education:  the  other  a man  of  liberal 
education,  although  his  training  had  not  been  directed  in  any 
way  toward  the  problems  of  horticulture.  The  orchards  had 
borne  exceptionally  well  for  several  years,  but  one  season, 
when  the  fruit  looked  especially  promising,  a period  of 
wet,  muggy  weather  came  along  just  before  the  picking  sea- 
son, and  one  morning  both  these  men  went  out  into  their  orch- 
ards, to  find  the  fruit  very  badly  “specked.”  Now  the  con- 
ventional thing  to  do  in  such  cases  was  well  known  to  both 
men.  Each  had  picked  up  a good  deal  of  technical  informa- 
tion about  caring  for  fruit,  and  each  did  the  same  thing  in 
meeting  this  situation.  He  got  out  his  spraying  outfit,  pre- 
pared some  Bordeaux  mixture  and  set  vigorously  at  work 
with  his  pumps.  So  far  as  persistence  and  enterprise  went, 
both  men  stood  on  an  equal  footing.  But  it  happened  that  this 
was  an  unusual  and  not  a conventional  situation.  The  spray- 


10 


EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE 


ing  did  not  alleviate  the  condition.  The  corruption  spread 
through  the  trees  like  wildfire  and  seemed  to  thrive  on  cop- 
per sulphate  rather  than  succumb  to  its  corrosive  influence. 

Now  this  was  where  the  difference  in  training  showed  itself. 
The  orchardist  who  worked  by  rule  of  thumb,  when  he  found 
that  his  rule  did  not  work,  gave  up  the  fight  and  spent  his 
time  sitting  on  his  front  porch  cursing  his  luck.  The  other 
set  diligently  at  work  to  analyze  the  situation.  His  educa- 
tion had  not  taught  him  anything  about  the  characteristics 
of  parasitic  fungi,  for  parasitic  fungi  were  not  very  well  under- 
stood when  he  was  in  school.  But  his  education  had  left 
with  him  a general  method  of  procedure  in  just  such  cases, 
and  that  method  he  at  once  applied.  It  had  taught  him  how 
to  find  the  information  that  he  needed,  provided  that  such 
information  was  available.  It  had  taught  him  that  human 
experience  is  crystallized  in  books,  and  that,  when  a discov- 
ery is  made  in  any  field  of  science, — no  matter  how  special- 
ized the  field  and  no  matter  how  trivial  the  finding, — the 
discovery  is  recorded  in  printer’s  ink  and  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  those  who  have  the  intelligence  to  find  it  and  apply  it. 
And  so  he  set  out  to  read  up  on  the  subject,— to  see  what  other 
men  had  learned  about  this  peculiar  kind  of  apple-rot.  He  got 
hold  of  all  that  had  been  written  about  it  and  began  to  master  it. 
He  told  his  friend  about  this  material  and  suggested  that  the 
latter  follow  the  same  course,  but  the  man  of  narrow  educa- 
tion soon  found  himself  utterly  at  sea  in  a maze  of  technical 
terms.  The  terms  were  new  to  the  other  too,  but  he  took 
down  his  dictionary  and  worked  them  out.  He  knew  how  to 
use  indices  and  tables  of  contents  and  various  other  devices 
that  facilitate  the  gathering  of  information,  and  while  his 
uneducated  friend  was  storming  over  the  pedantry  of 
men  who  use  big  words,  the  other  was  making  rapid  pro- 
gress through  the  material.  In  a short  time  he  learned 
everything  that  had  been  found  out  about  the  specific  dis- 
ease. He  learned  that  its  spores  are  encased  in  a gelatinous 
sac  which  resisted  the  entrance  of  the  chemicals.  He  found 
how  the  spores  were  reproduced,  how  they  wintered,  how  they 


NORMAL  SGHOOL  BULLETIN 


11 


germinated  in  the  following  season;  and,  although  he  did  not 
save  much  of  his  crop  that  year,  he  did  better  the  next. 
Nor  were  the  evidences  of  his  superiority  limited  to  this  very 
useful  result.  He  found  that,  after  all,  very  little  was  known 
about  this  disease,  so  he  set  himself  to  find  out  more  about 
it.  To  do  this,  he  started  where  other  investigators  had 
left  off,  and  then  he  applied  a principle  he  had  learned  from 
his  education, — namely,  that  the  only  valid  methods  of 
obtaining  new  truths  are  the  methods  of  close  observation 
and  controlled  experiment. 

Now  I maintain  that  the  education  which  was  given  that 
man  was  effective  in  a degree  that  ought  to  make  his  experi- 
ence an  object-lesson  for  us  who  teach.  What  he  had  found 
most  useful  at  a very  critical  juncture  of  his  business  life  was, 
primarily,  not  the  technical  knowledge  that  he  had  gained 
either  in  school  or  in  actual  experience.  His  superiority  lay 
in  the  fact  that  he  knew  how  to  get  hold  of  knowledge  when 
he  needed  it,  how  to  master  it  once  he  had  obtained  it,  how 
to  apply  it  once  he  had  mastered  it,  and  finally  how  to  go 
about  to  discover  facts  that  had  been  undetected  by  previous 
investigators.  I care  not  whether  he  got  this  knowledge  in 
the  elementary  school  or  in  the  high  school  or  in  the  college. 
He  might  have  secured  it  in  any  one  of  the  three  types  of  in- 
stitution but  he  had  to  learn  it  somewhere,  and  I shall  go 
further  and  say  that  the  average  man  has  to  learn  it  in  some 
school  and  under  an  explicit  and  conscious  method  of  instruc- 
tion. That  form  of  education  which  does  not  consciously 
teach  pupils  these  four  things  will  not  supply  a maximally 
useful  form  of  information,  I care  not  what  the  specific  con- 
tent is  that  it  teaches.  You  cannot  limit  a useful  education 
to  what  we  call  useful  information,  for  information  varies  in 
its  utility  and  we  may  load  the  pupil’s  mind  with  a mass  of 
facts  that  he  will  never  have  occasion  to  apply.  But  if,  in 
gaining  these  facts,  he  has  acquired  ideals  of  study  and  of 
investigation,  I am  willing  to  put  him  alongside  the  pupil 
who  has  been  limited  to  facts  that  he  does  find  useful,  but 
who  has  missed  the  principles  and  ideals  that  I have  men- 
tioned. 


12 


EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE 


But  perhaps  you  would  maintain  that  this  statement  of 
the  case,  while  in  general  true,  does  not  help  us  out  in  prac- 
tice. After  all,  how  are  we  to  impress  pupils  with  this  ideal 
of  persistence  and  with  these  ideals  of  getting  and  applying 
information,  and  with  this  ideal  of  investigation?  I maintain 
that  these  important  useful  ideals  can  be  effectively  impress- 
ed from  the  very  outset  of  school  life.  The  teaching  of  every 
subject  affords  innumerable  opportunities  to  force  home  their 
lessons.  In  fact,  it  must  be  a very  gradual  process — a pro- 
cess in  which  the  concrete  instances  are  numerous  and  rich 
and  impressive.  From  these  concrete  instances,  the  general 
truth  may  in  time  emerge.  Certainly  the  chances  that  it  will 
emerge  are  greatly  multiplied  if  we  ourselves  recognize  its 
worth  and  importance,  and  lead  pupils  to  see  in  each  concrete 
case  the  operation  of  the  general  principle.  After  all,  the 
chief  reason  why  so  much  of  our  education  miscarries,  why 
so  few  pupils  gain  the  strength  and  the  power  that  we  ex- 
pect all  to  gain,  lies  in  the  inability  of  the  average  individ- 
ual to  draw  a general  conclusion  from  concrete  cases — to  see 
the  general  in  the  particular.  We  have  insisted  so  strenu- 
ously upon  concrete  instruction  that  we  have  perhaps  failed 
also  to  insist  that  fact  without  law  is  blind,  and  that  observa- 
tion without  induction  is  stupidity  gone  to  seed. 

Let  me  give  right  here  a concrete  instance  of  what  I 
mean.  Not  long  ago,  I visited  an  eighth-grade  class  during  a 
geography  period.  It  was  at  the  time  when  the  discovery  of 
the  Pole  had  just  set  the  whole  civilized  world  by  the  ears, 
and  the  teacher  was  doing  something  that  many  good  teach- 
ers do  on  occasions  of  this  sort:  she  was  turning  the  vivid 
interest  of  the  moment  to  educative  purposes.  The  pupils 
had  read  Peary’s  account  of  his  trip  and  they  were  discuss- 
ing its  details  in  class.  Now  that  exercise  was  vastly  more 
than  an  interesting  information-lesson,  for  Peary’s  achieve- 
ment became,  under  the  skillful  touch  of  that  teacher,  a type 
of  all  human  achievement.  I wish  that  I could  reproduce 
that  lesson  for  you — how  vividly  she  pictured  the  situation 
that  confronted  the  explorer, — the  bitter  cold,  the  shifting 


NORMAL  SCHOOL  BULLETIN 


18 


ice,  the  treacherous  open  leads,  the  lack  of  game  or  other 
sources  of  food-supply,  the  long  marches  on  scant  rations, 
the  short  hours  and  the  uncomfortable  conditions  of  sleep; 
and  how  from  these  that  fundamental  lesson  of  pluck  and 
endurance  and  courage  came  forth  naturally  without  preach- 
ing the  moral  or  indulging  in  sentimental  “goody- goody  ism.” 
And  then  the  other  and  equally  important  part  of  the  lesson, 
— how  pluck  and  courage  in  themselves  could  never  have 
solved  the  problem  and  how  knowledge  was  essential,  and 
how  that  knowledge  had  been  gained:  some  of  it  from  the 
experience  of  early  explorers, — how  to  avoid  the  dreaded 
scurvy,  how  to  build  a ship  that  could  withstand  the  tre- 
mendous pressure  of  the  floes;  and  some  from  the  Eskimos. 
— how  to  live  in  that  barren  region,  and  how  to  travel  with 
dogs  and  sledges; — and  some,  too,  from  Peary’s  own  early 
experiences, — how  he  had  struggled  for  twenty  years  to 
reach  the  goal,  and  had  added  this  experience  to  that  until 
finally  the  prize  was  his.  We  may  differ  as  to  the  Value  of 
Peary’s  deed  but  the  fact  that  it  stands  as  a type  of  what 
success  in  any  undertaking  means,  no  one  can  deny.  And 
this  was  the  lesson  that  these  eighth- grade  pupils  were  ab- 
sorbing,— the  world-old  lesson  before  which  all  others  fade 
into  insignificance, — the  lesson,  namely,  that  achievement 
can  be  gained  only  by  those  who  are  willing  to  pay  the  price. 

And  I imagine  that  when  that  class  is  studying  the  con- 
tinent of  Africa  in  their  geography  work,  they  will  learn 
something  more  than  rivers  and  mountains  and  boundaries 
and  products, — I imagine  that  they  will  link  these  facts  with 
the  names  and  deeds  of  the  men  who  gave  them  to  the  world. 
And  when  they  study  history,  it  will  be  vastly  more  than 
a bare  recital  of  dates  and  events, — it  will  be  alive  with 
these  great  lessons  of  struggle  and  triumph, — for  history, 
after  all,  it  is  only  the  record  of  human  achievement.  And 
if  those  pupils  do  not  find  these  same  lessons  coming  out  of 
their  own  little  conquests, — if  the  problems  of  arithmetic  do 
not  furnish  an  opportunity  to  conquer  the  pressure-ridges 
of  partial  payments  or  the  Polar-night  of  bank-discount,  or 


14 


EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE 


if  the  intricacies  of  formal  grammar  do  not  resolve  them- 
selves into  the  North  Pole  of  correct  expression, — I have 
misjudged  that  teacher’s  capacities; — for,  the  great  tri- 
umph of  teaching  is  to  get  our  pupils  to  see  the  funda- 
mental and  the  eternal  in  things  that  are  seemingly  trivial 
and  transitory.  We  are  fond  of  dividing  school  studies  into 
the  cultural  and  the  practical,  into  the  humanities  and  the 
sciences.  Believe  me,  there  is  no  study  worth  the  teaching 
that  is  not  practical  at  basis,  and  there  is  no  practical  study 
that  has  not  its  human  interest  and  its  humanizing  influence 
— if  only  we  go  to  some  pains  to  search  them  out. 

I have  said  that  the  most  useful  thing  that  education  can 
do  is  to  imbue  the  pupil  with  the  ideal  of  effortful  achieve- 
ment which  will  lead  him  to  do  cheerfully  and  effectively  the 
disagreeable  tasks  that  fall  to  his  lot.  I have  said  that  the 
next  most  useful  thing  that  it  can  do  is  to  give  him  a general 
method  of  solving  the  problems  that  he  meets.  Is  there  any 
other  useful  out-come  of  a general  nature  that  we  can  rank 
in  importance  with  these  two?  I believe  that  there  is,  and  I 
can  perhaps  cell  you  what  I mean  by  another  reference  to  a 
concrete  case.  I have  a friend  who  lacks  this  third  factor, 
although  he  possesses  the  other  two  in  a very  generous  meas- 
use.  He  is  full  of  ambition,  persistence,  and  courage.  He  is 
master  of  the  rational  method  of  solving  the  problems  that 
beset  him.  He  does  his  work  intelligently  and  effectively. 
And  yet  he  has  failed  to  make  a good  living.  Why?  Simply 
because  of  his  standard  of  what  constitutes  a good  living. 
Measured  by  my  standard,  he  is  doing  excellently  well. 
Measured  by  his  own  standard,  he  is  a miserable  failure. 
He  is  depressed  and  gloomy  and  out  of  harmony  with  the 
world,  simply  because  he  has  no  other  standard  for  a good  liv- 
ing than  a financial  one.  He  is  by  profession  a civil  engineer. 
His  work  is  much  more  remunerative  than  is  that  of  many 
other  callings.  He  has  it  in  him  to  attain  to  professional 
distinction  in  that  work.  But  to  this  opportunity  he  is  blind. 
In  the  great  industrial  center  in  which  he  works,  he  is  con- 
stantly irritated  by  the  evidences  of  wealth  and  luxury  beyond 


NORMAL  SGHOOL  BULLETIN 


15 


what  he  himself  enjoys.  The  millionaire  captain-of-industry 
is  his  hero,  and  because  he  is  not  numbered  among  this  class, 
he  looks  at  the  world  through  the  bluest  kind  of  spectacles. 

Now,  to  my  mind  that  man’s  education  failed  somewhere, 
and  its  failure  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  did  not  develop  in  him 
ideals  of  success  that  would  have  made  him  immune  to  these 
irritating  factors.  We  have  often  heard  it  said  that  education 
should  rid  the  mind  of  the  incubus  of  superstition,  and  one 
very  important  effect  of  universal  education  is  that  it 
does  offer  to  all  men  an  explanation  of  the  phenomena  that 
formerly  weighted  down  the  mind  with  fear  and  dread,  and 
opened  an  easy  ingress  to  the  forces  of  superstition  and  fraud 
and  error.  Education  has  accomplished  this  function  I think 
passably  well  with  respect  to  the  more  obvious  sources  of 
superstition.  Necromancy  and  magic,  demonism  and  witch- 
craft have  long  since  been  relegated  to  the  limbo  of  exposed 
fraud.  Their  conquest  has  been  one  of  the  most  significant 
advances  that  man  has  made  above  the  brute.  The  truths 
of  science  have  at  last  triumphed,  and,  as  education  has  dif- 
fused these  truths  among  the  masses,  the  triumph  has  become 
almost  universal.  But  there  are  other  forms  of  superstition 
beside  those  I have  mentioned, — other  instances  of  a false 
perspective,  of  distorted  values,  of  inadequate  standards.  If 
belief  in  witchcraft  or  in  magic  is  bad  because  it  falls  short 
of  an  adequate  interpretation  of  nature, — if  it  is  false  because  it 
is  inconsistent  with  human  experience, — then  the  worship  of 
Mammon  that  my  engineer-friend  represents  is  tenfold  worse 
than  witchcraft,  measured  by  the  same  standards.  If  there 
is  any  lesson  that  human  history  teaches  with  compelling 
force  it  is  surely  this:  Every  race  which  has  yielded  to  the 
demon  of  individualism  and  the  lust  for  gold  and  self- gratifi- 
cation has  gone  down  the  swift  and  certain  road  to  national 
decay.  Every  race  that,  through  unusual  material  prosperity, 
has  lost  its  grip  on  the  eternal  verities  of  self-sacrifice  and 
self-abnegation  has  left  bhe  lesson  of  its  downfall  written  large 
upon  the  pages  of  history.  I repeat  that  if  superstition  con- 
sists in  believing  something  that  is  inconsistent  with  rational 


16 


EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE 


human  experience,  then  our  present  worship  of  the  golden 
calf  isby  far  the  most  dangerous  form  of  superstition  that  has 
ever  befuddled  the  human  intellect. 

But,  you  ask,  what  can  education  do  in  alleviating  a 
condition  of  this  sort?  How  can  the  weak  influence  of  the 
school  make  itself  felt  in  an  environment  that  has  crystal- 
lized on  every  hand  this  unfortunate  standard?  Individual- 
ism is  in  the  air.  It  is  the  dominant  spirit  of  the  times.  It 
is  reinforced  upon  every  side  by  the  unmistakable  evidences 
of  national  prosperity.  It  is  all  right  to  preach  the  simple 
life,  but  who  is  going  to  live  it  unless  he  has  to?  It  is  all 
right  to  say  that  man  should  have  social  and  not  individual 
standards  of  success  and  achievement,  but  what  effect  will 
your  puerile  assertion  have  upon  the  situation  that  con- 
fronts us? 

Yes;  it  is  easier  to  be  a pessimist  than  an  optimist.  It 
is  far  easier  to  lie  back  and  let  things  run  their  course  than  it 
is  to  strike  out  into  mid-stream  and  make  what  must  be  for 
the  pioneer  a fatal  effort  to  stem  the  current.  But  is  the  situ- 
ation absolutely  hopeless?  If  the  forces  of  education  can  lift 
the  Japanese  people  from  barbarism  to  enlightenment  in  two 
generations; — if  education  can  in  a single  century  transform 
Germany  from  the  weakest  to  the  strongest  power  on  the 
continent  of  Europe; — if  five  short  years  of  a certain  type 
of  education  can  change  the  course  of  destiny  in  China;  are 
we  warranted  in  our  assumption  that  we  hold  a weak  weapon 
in  this  fight  against  Mammon? 

I have  intimated  that  the  attitude  of  my  engineer-friend 
toward  life  is  the  result  of  twisted  ideals.  A good  many 
young  men,  are  going  out  into  life  with  a similar  defect  in 
their  education.  They  gain  their  ideals,  not  from  the  great 
well-springs  of  human  experience  as  represented  in  history 
and  literature,  in  religion  and  art,  but  from  the  environment 
around  them,  and  consequently  they  become  vic'tims  of  this 
superstition  from  the  outset.  As  a trainer  of  teachers,  I 
hold  it  to  be  one  important  part  of  my  duty  to  fortify  my 
students  as  strongly  as  I can  against  this  false  standard  of 


NORMAL  SGHOOL  BULLETIN 


17 


which  my  engineer-friend  is  the  victim.  It  is  just  as  much 
a part  of  my  duty  to  give  my  students  effective  and  consis- 
tent standards  of  what  a good  living  consists  in  as  it  is  to 
give  them  the  technical  knowledge  and  skill  that  will  enable 
them  to  make  a good  living.  If  my  students  who  are  to  be- 
come teachers  have  standards  of  living  and  standards  of 
success  that  are  inconsistent  with  the  great  ideal  of  social 
service  for  which  teaching  stands,  then  I have  fallen  far 
short  of  success  in  my  work.  If  they  are  constantly  irri- 
tated by  the  evidences  of  luxury  beyond  their  means,  if 
this  irritation  sours  their  dispositions  and  checks  their  spon- 
taneity, their  efficiency  as  teachers  is  greatly  lessened  or 
perhaps  entirely  negated.  And  if  my  engineer-friend  places 
worldly  emoluments  upon  a higher  plane  than  professional 
efficiency,  I dread  for  the  safety  of  the  bridges  that  he  builds. 
His  education  as  an  engineer  should  have  fortified  him  against 
just  such  a contingency.  It  should  have  left  him  with  the 
ideal  of  craftmanship  supreme  in  his  life.  And  if  his  tech- 
nical education  failed  to  do  this,  his  general  education  ought, 
at  least,  to  have  given  him  a bias  in  the  right  direction. 

I believe  that  all  forms  of  vocational  and  professional 
education  are  not  so  strong  in  this  respect  as  they  should  be. 
Again  you  say  to  me,  What  can  education  do  when  the  spirit 
of  the  times  speaks  so  strongly  on  the  other  side?  But  what 
is  education  for  if  it  is  not  to  preserve  midst  the  chaos  and 
confusion  of  troublous  times  the  great  truths  that  the  race 
has  wrung  from  its  experience?  How  different  might  have 
been  the  fate  of  Rome,  if  Rome  had  possessed  an  education- 
al system  touching  every  child  in  the  Empire,  and  if,  during 
the  years  that  witnessed  her  decay  and  downfall,  those 
schools  could  have  kept  steadily,  persistently  at  work,  im- 
pressing upon  every  member  of  each  successive  generation 
the  virtues  that  had  made  the  old  Romans  strong  and  virile, 
— the  virtues  that  enabled  them  to  lay  the  foundations  of  an 
Empire  that  crumbled  in  ruins  once  these  truths  were  for- 
gotten. Is  it  not  the  specific  task  of  education  to  represent 
in  each  generation  the  human  experiences  that  have  been 


18 


EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE 


tried  and  tested  and  found  to  work, — to  represent  these  in 
the  face  of  opposition  if  need  be, — to  be  faithful  to  the  trus- 
teeship of  the  most  priceless  legacy  that  the  past  has  left  to 
the  present  and  to  the  future?  If  this  is  not  our  function  in 
the  scheme  of  things,  then  what  is  our  function?  Is  it  to 
stand  with  bated  breath  to  catch  the  first  whisper  that  will 
usher  in  the  next  change?  Is  it  to  surrender  all  initiative 
and  simply  allow  ourselves  to  be  tossed  hither  and  yon  by 
the  waves  and  cross- waves  of  a fickle  public  opinion?  Is  it 
to  cower  in  dread  of  a criticism  that  is  not  only  unjust,  but 
also  ill-advised  of  the  real  conditions  under  which  we  are 
doing  our  work? 

I take  it  that  none  of  us  is  ready  to  answer  these 
questions  in  the  affirmative.  Deep  down  in  our  hearts 
we  know  that  we  have  a useful  work  to  do,  and  we  know 
that  we  are  doing  it  passably  well.  We  also  know  our 
defects  and  shortcomings  at  least  as  well  as  one  who  has 
never  faced  our  problems  and  tried  to  solve  them.  And  it 
is  from  this  latter  type  that  most  of  the  drastic  criticism, 
especially  of  the  elementary  and  secondary  school,  emanates. 
I confess  that  my  gorge  rises  within  me  when  I read  or  hear 
the  invectives  that  are  being  hurled  against  teaching  as  a 
profession  (and  against  the  work  of  the  elementary  and  sec- 
ondary school  in  particular)  by  men  who  know  nothing  of 
this  work  at  first  hand.  This  is  the  greatest  handicap  under 
which  the  profession  of  teaching  labors.  In  every  other  im- 
portant field  of  human  activity  a man  must  present  his  cre- 
dentials before  he  takes  his  seat  at  the  council-table,  and 
even  then  he  must  sit  and  listen  respectfully  to  his  elders 
for  a while  before  he  ventures  a criticism  or  even  a sugges- 
tion. This  plan  may  have  its  defects.  It  may  keep  things 
on  too  conservative  a basis;  but  it  avoids  the  danger  into 
which  we  as  a profession  have  fallen, — the  danger  of  “half- 
baked”  theories  and  unmatured  policies.  Today  the  only 
man  that  can  get  a respectable  hearing  at  our  great  national 
educational  meetings  is  the  man  who  has  something  new  and 
bizarre  to  propose.  And  the  more  startling  the  proposal, 


NORMAL  SGHOOL  BULLETIN 


19 


the  greater  the  measure  of  adulation  that  he  receives.  The 
result  of  this  is  a continual  straining  for  effect,  an  enormous 
annual  crop  of  fads  aud  fancies,  which,  though  most  of  them 
are  happily  short-lived,  keep  us  in  a state  of  continual  tur- 
moil and  confusion. 

Now  it  goes  without  saying  that  there  are  many  ways  of 
making  education  hit  the  mark  of  utility  in  addition  to  those 
that  I have  mentioned.  The  teachers  down  in  the  lower 
grades  who  are  teaching  little  children  the  arts  of  reading 
and  writing  and  computation  are  doing  vastly  more  in  a 
practical  direction  than  they  are  ever  given  credit  for  doing; 
for  reading  and  writing  and  the  manipulation  of  numbers 
are,  next  to  oral  speech  itself,  the  prime  necessities  in  the 
social  and  industrial  world.  These  arts  are  being  taught  to- 
day better  than  they  have  ever  been  taught  before, — and  the 
method  and  technique  of  their  teaching  is  undergoing  con- 
stant refinement  and  improvement. 

The  school  can  do  and  is  doing  other  useful  things. 
Some  schools  are  training  their  pupils  to  be  well  mannered 
and  courteous  and  considerate  of  the  rights  of  others. 
They  are  teaching  children  one  of  the  most  basic  and  funda- 
mental laws  of  human  life, — namely,  that  there  are  some 
things  that  a gentleman  cannot  do  and  some  things  that  so- 
ciety will  not  stand.  How  many  a painful  experience  in 
solving  that  very  problem  of  getting  a living  could  be  avoid- 
ed if  one  had  only  learned  this  lesson  passing  well!  What 
a pity  it  is  that  some  schools  that  stand  today  for  what  we 
call  educational  progress  are  failing  in  just  this  particular — 
are  sending  out  into  the  world  an  annual  crop  of  boys  and 
girls  who  must  learn  the  great  lesson  of  self  -control  and  a 
proper  respect  for  the  rights  of  others  in  the  bitter  school 
of  experience, — a school  in  which  the  rod  will  never  be 
spared,  but  whose  chastening  scourge  comes  sometimes  alas 
too  late! 

Yes,  there  is  no  feature  of  school  life  which  has  not  its 
almost  infinite  possibilities  of  utility.  But  after  all,  are  not 
the  basic  and  fundamental  things  these  ideals  that  I have 


20 


NORMAL  SCHOOL  BULLETIN 


named?  And  should  not  we  who  teach  stand  for  idealism 
in  its  widest  sense?  Should  we  not  insist,  in  court  and 
out,  that  this  nation  of  ours  was  founded  upon  idealism,  and 
that,  whatever  may  be  the  materialistic  and  individualistic 
tendencies  of  the  moment,  its  children,  at  least,  shall  learn 
to  dwell  among  the  sunlit  peaks?  And  should  we  not  our- 
selves subscribe  an  undying  fidelity  to  those  great  ideals  for 
which  teaching  must  stand, — to  the  ideal  of  social  service 
which  lies  at  the  basis  of  our  craft,  to  the  ideals  of  effort  and 
discipline  that  make  a nation  great  and  its  children  strong, 
to  the  ideal  of  science  that  dissipates  the  black  night  of  ig- 
norance and  superstition,  to  the  ideal  of  culture  that  human- 
izes mankind?  For  if  we  have  these  great  human  truths 
well  implanted,  although  our  work  may  keep  us  very  close 
to  Mother  Earth,  we  can  still  lift  our  heads  above  the  fog 
and  look  the  morning  sun  squarely  in  the  face. 


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